For me, except for the weather and the fact that I don't have my family and friends around, there's absolutely no difference being in Kuwait than it is being in India. It would be comparable to me being in Rajasthan in May...albeit with a completely different economic position. The majority of people I work with in office are Indians, I eat an Indian thali for lunch daily, I speak in Hindi most of the time, and I stay in "Taj" apartments.
As I had written earlier, I really do not like the idea of being, as Sunil rightly put it, stereotyped. I am an Indian, and there are definitely a lot of things about India that I really like. At the same time, there are several things about India....things that really make me cringe when I think about them. The level of filth in public places, the state of infrastructure, the political system, and most of all, the amazingly amazing levels of hypocrisy that abound within a majority of the Indians (there I go stereotyping Indians as hypocrites after having protested against it....see what I mean when I say hypocrites !!!)
I believe that we need to look things with a much wider perspective. Nationalism and patriotism is necessary as long as it helps prevent ourselves from exploitation. My idea of a nation is a group of people that decides to come together and ensure collectively that they aren't exploited. A perfect world would be with nations which try their best to not get exploited, but which at the same time do not want to take any unjustified advantage of other Nations (colonialism and bombing the hell out of oil-rich countries come to mind immediately as examples of unjustified advantage).
I love Mumbai for a variety of reasons, chief among them being the presence of my family and friends. There's also the spirit of the people, the fact that I am not differentiated against and the opportunity that it gives me for having a successful career, and thereby, a happy life.
So the question arises whether I am patriotic ? The answer to that is a No. I love my country and would want to protect it with a vested interest of saving my skin and that of the people around me. However, the extent to which I can go to protect India can only be determined when the time comes for it.
Independence day- I think we should call it the day India gained political freedom. I am borrowing these thoughts from somewhere (cant remember where exactly, but in all probability from Amit Varma's blog), but I do think India is still not an economically free country. We are getting there, but are still a long long way off from where we should be. Take the example of taxes. I read somewhere (again forget the source) a calculation of taxes in terms of no. of months you work for the government. By effective rate of tax in FY 2008 will be something like 24%. So for April to June I work for the government via direct taxes. Then i pay a host of indirect taxes (chief among them being tax on Petrol, Municipal taxes, entertainment tax, etc.). I guess only from September onwards do I start working for myself. And what do I get for the first 5 months that I work for the government ? Safety from foreign and local attack(which surely cant cost so much !), shitty infrastructure, an even shittier judiciary, and a right to vote for rascals of the highest order.
All in all, I am not too kicked at being independent since 60 years. We should maybe celebrate 1991 as the year of independence...which, ironically, was forced upon us by the bad bad West. You see, they refused to lend us money to be put down the drain by providing salaries to government officials who produced crap. 1947 was when we got a right to vote. 1991 was when we got a small percentage of the right to choose the way we want to lead our lives. The percentage is growing every year, and hopefully it will move in the right direction.
So the question arises whether I am patriotic ? The answer to that is a No. I love my country and would want to protect it with a vested interest of saving my skin and that of the people around me. However, the extent to which I can go to protect India can only be determined when the time comes for it.
Independence day- I think we should call it the day India gained political freedom. I am borrowing these thoughts from somewhere (cant remember where exactly, but in all probability from Amit Varma's blog), but I do think India is still not an economically free country. We are getting there, but are still a long long way off from where we should be. Take the example of taxes. I read somewhere (again forget the source) a calculation of taxes in terms of no. of months you work for the government. By effective rate of tax in FY 2008 will be something like 24%. So for April to June I work for the government via direct taxes. Then i pay a host of indirect taxes (chief among them being tax on Petrol, Municipal taxes, entertainment tax, etc.). I guess only from September onwards do I start working for myself. And what do I get for the first 5 months that I work for the government ? Safety from foreign and local attack(which surely cant cost so much !), shitty infrastructure, an even shittier judiciary, and a right to vote for rascals of the highest order.
All in all, I am not too kicked at being independent since 60 years. We should maybe celebrate 1991 as the year of independence...which, ironically, was forced upon us by the bad bad West. You see, they refused to lend us money to be put down the drain by providing salaries to government officials who produced crap. 1947 was when we got a right to vote. 1991 was when we got a small percentage of the right to choose the way we want to lead our lives. The percentage is growing every year, and hopefully it will move in the right direction.
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